Evening Star Newspaper, September 25, 1928, Page 27

THE EVENING STAR, WASHINGTON, D. C., TUESDAY. SEPTEMBER 25, 1928.1 2r Y BLUE MURDER Edmund Snell Thrilling Story of a Young Secret Service Man’s Battle With Crime and Rescue of Girl in Peril. :X\M\mfi\fi\ss‘t\\\\\\\\\““\\x\\\w&ssm\“m“xmsxtmm SYNOPSIS. n adventurer with an ex- eeilent_war record. 1s summoned by his old €hief, Sir Tan Taverner. high up in the Lon fion gecret service. Corlitt. Sir Tan . as been killed in the ba inew chemical weapon. Ahlborg, a chemist. 3 Fives, Corlitt's corpse is rapidly disintegrat- {pe. leaving behind it a biue powder. Sir an explains that evers co in_Europ Is trying to get cont #nd 1o this end he with Emile Daudot Alan Dighton, n touct 1t alone he initials it he knocks ight cltb with Sir Greta Haye t his hotei Mafalda meet when the conversing with __(Continued from Yesterday's Star.) INSTALLMENT XIIL IGHTON nodded "I shall be there, t00,” he as- sured Mafalda. “My doctor' has recommended walking as good for the liver!™ ‘They both laughed As he pressed his lips to her hand he remembered something. “Tonight is our sccret, signorina; all of it. We will say nothing about our assassin, my struggle with him or his gun. His body will be washed up tomorrow, you understand, and it is better to know nothing about these things.” A white forefinger rested across her s. #_ “They are sealed,” she assured him; *absolutely sealed.” Ten stairs above him she turned. “Will you swear to me you do not | who that man was?" ‘I have not the remotest idea.” She glanced out to | “It is strange that e | “ome upon us like that. rrible mask, too! I shall dream of Buona notte, caro!” She was gone with that, and Digh- | ton watched her slim form passing from one flight to the other until the | summit was reached. Before following her example he filled and lit a pipe. nning the e | I hound | the was nothing to prevent these beasts | hurling themselves at him from the bank. Half wild as they were, how- ever, they did not attempl to cross | the ‘boundary line allotted them for | protection, but coursed up and down | it, reminding the traveler at every step | the | that any attempt at entering grounds of the Villa Sabino would en- | tail fatal consequences. | " He did not pause at the gates. The ceaseless din above him was too deaf- ening, and he had no desire to at- tract more attention to himself than | was necessary. From a metaled road | which branched presently to his left he obtained a view of the villa and | outbuildings, interrupted only by a. line | of tall trees and the low roof of a porter's lodge. {""The one thougnt at Dighton's mind when he dropped down the steep path to Portofino was that the Villa Sabino was not going to be broken into too easily. There was at least a hundred yards | of gravel drive to be traversed before | the_square-fronted main building was reached, and the fincst sprinter on could not hope to outstep those s. Without the dogs, and assum- | ing Ahlborg had not concealed a bat- | tery of his guns in the bushes, access to ‘the property could be gained from innumerable points, and there was ample cover to enable an intruder to approach the house without being ob- rved. Marney had declared that the dogs | could not be poisoned. From a busi- ness point of view, this was a pity. | It certainly prevented Dighton from employing methods which went against the grain. At a rough calculation, the grounds of the villa ran into three acres | and the Alsatians had a free run over the whole arca. Nor was their num- ber restricted to four, for he had de- tected a distant baying of other dogs presumably from kennels at the rear lof the building. It was conceivable that during the dark hours at least a dozen of these powerful brutes per- formed guard duty along the fringes the back of | of Ahlbor The roofs of Portofino were below him when he framed the idea of re- taining the Pocket Death, repairing place where the electrical con- trivance that fired the charge had shorted and using the last round on the dogs when attacked by them in the midst of a desperate raid. The flaw in this was so obvious that he | discarded it almost immediately. It was improbable that every dog on the place would make for. him at one time or, even if they so, that they would entire coast line within view, he found no trace of his recent antagonist. Unless he managed to see the body | after fishermen had brought it in, the »identity of the Lizard would never be | Tevealed. The realization of this left | him disappointed. Unsolved mysteries | were always unsatisfactory. And yet, | after all, the only thing that reall mattered was the fact that his enem had ceased to exist. Dighton did not go back for an- other dance. He crossed to the hotel | by the bridge and ordered a drink | from his room. He ordered a double whisky—and felt that he, had earned it. It was.the remedy Taverner would | have advised—a nightcap to an ad- venture of which Taverner would have approved. With the Pocket Death locked in a suit case, he slept soundly—as soundly, in fact, as any ordinary guest who had traveled south for his health. He | had not dealt with Ahlborg yet, the Lizard was polluting the Mediterranean « 8nd he had a rendezvous on the mor- row with the bewitching Mafalda! His last waking thought concerned Marney. He wondered how long it would be before the little American made his way to the room at the back of the fruiterer’s shop in the Via Emilia. When that worthy did come to town he would have news for him. On the following morning Dighton breakfasted early and went out. Half an hour’s stiff walking over wooded hillsides brought him to a lane that was little more than a cart track which led him between high banks toward a formidable iron gateway just visible ahead. He was within a score of yards of this when he caught the sound of heavy bodies crashing through the bushes to his right. Suddenly, almost on a level with his head, four enor- mous’ wolfhounds . came into view, snarling and baring their fangs in a frenzy of furious excitement. Dighton pushed on, keeping dis- creetly to the far side of the track. Roof Paints of all kinds. House Paints. parch Paints. Radiator Paints & Enamels. Floor Wax & Sta;ns. iy o for Autos & Furniture. “Barreled Sunlight.” Du Pont Paints & Varm‘sl:es. rantage insure s fWe're and to paint ha tation. Reilly P vantage So far as he was able 1o see, there Buy now, Buy right, Buy Famous Reading Anthracite © PRCICO-1928 1334 N. 4 / : be confined in so small a compass that the one round would account for them. No, the Villa Sabino was to all in- tents and purposes_impregnable, ex- cept by artifice. Future and more thorough surveys of this field of en- terprise might reveal points which both Marney and himself had over- looked; but only Mafalda and Ahlborg could approach the building un- challenged and with impunity, and it was through the former that he must eventually obtain admittance. He would drop in at Marney's lodg- ings that evening and see if he had returned. As soon as he had found him, he would intrust the weapon to him' for safe transit to Taverner. The recovery of the Pocket Death would be a sop to the chief. It would assure {him that Dighton had not been idle |and keep him from worrying over the | long period of apparent _ inactivity | which the adventurer feii must neces- | sarily follow. You could not walk up to a girl like Mafalda Pasquali and s T think you are absolutely | charming. Please take me home with | you to Ahlborg’s villa!” A question of t nature had to be approached warily, delicately. It would have to be insinuated, rather than voiced, at a time when she was sufficiently in- | fluenced to be unsuspecting. There | would have to be some strong reason | for_selecting the place—and, at the | moment, Dighton could not imagine a reason that would be in the least bit convincing. ‘The home of the other man in an affaire de coeur Seemed | the last place on earth in which to | prosecute an intrigue. | * He stepped from the open hillside |into a road running between fisher- | men’s cottages, with a pale sun shining from a cloudless sky turning the keen air into a feeling of an English Spring. To his left tenement buildings of med- erate size and weather-beaten aspect | hugged the waterside; a shabby res- | taurant to his right advertised strange beverages on uninspiring windows, and exposcd to the open air a handful of green-painted chairs. Immediately ahead of him, beyond the broad walk between the houses and the sea, white yachts and fishing vessels with russet sails snuggled in & horseshoe harbor of unsurpassed loveliness. In perched on a bollard in the shelter of a wall of rock, he found Mafalda. The sable coat had given place to a serviceable waterproof, the evening frock to a costume of knitted wool. Altogether rhe looked more human than when he had first seen her, more like the type of woman he would have set Get Your Fall Painting Under Way —at once, so as to have the ad- of good weather, and to uccessful results, employ Reilly-indorsed Paints, Oils, Var- nishes, Stains, ctc. sticklers for QUALITY, find shelf room here, a s to be a product of repu- f[Another reason for preferring aints is found in the ad- of— * Specially Low Prices Window Glass Cut to Order HUGH REILLY CO. PAINT & GLASS Y. Ave.—Phone M. 1703 FIRE BETTER FYREWELL is a very carefully cleaned, very carefully sized hard coal. It is a small size found by Reading engineers to be the best all-round auxiliary coal. best fire known—a fire ol Anthracite—even better. It makes even the f large sized Reading It costs less. 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If he had considered her feelings at all, he had viewed her in the light of a more or less immoral woman to whom a succession of love ‘nfl'nirs was part and parcel of her ex- istence. He did not suppose that her affair with him would be regarded in a serious light or that after it had run its brief course it would ieave any last- ing mark on her. In this, as it speedily fault. A succession of picnics at Recco, Portofino Vetta or Carasco, secret theater trips to Genoa, drives to Chi- avari or Nervi left him fearful lest the news of their intrigue should drift to the ears of the unsuspecting Ahlberg He wondered how long it would be be- fore her mine of plausible excuses to this bearded giant would give ‘out, be- fore they would wear too thin to be even credible. From the date of their first assigna- tion the role of hunter had passed from him to her. It was sne who planned these meetings and worked herself up into jealous fury if he demurred. transpired, his calculations were at | ‘The trouble of it all.was that Dighton was both young and possessed of & con- science. More than that, he was in love with Greta and detested this other business heartily. Admittedly he was attracted to the Signorina Pasquali; but not infatuated. The fervor of h whirlwind tactics left him breath] He could imagine Marney, withs his uncanny knowledge of everything that went on around him, indulging in an appreciative chuckle, Taverner, nad he been able to realize to the full the actual trend of affairs, would have been cqually elated. When Mafalda fixed the adventurer with her big, southern cyes he felt that Greta was watching him; when he wrote to her he felt like & criminal. A thousand times he was tempted to | throw in his hand, to take the first train homeward with the admission to Taverner that he was a failure. And yet an admission of failure was the one thing of which he was utterly in- | capable, The moods of Mafalda were as extraordinary as they were varied. At | times she would treat him as her father- confessor, regretting incidents in her life and imploring his forgiveness. “You sce, caro mio,” she would ex- plain, “a woman is just as she is made. It is terrible to have beauty and tem- perament—and no money! would come.” On one of their rambles along the coast beyond the eastward extremities of Rapallo they had come upon a skeleton of a building that for some reason had never been completed. Its foundations were in the cliff and a gaping hole on the side of a lower room gave glimpses of a subterranean cavern. Different Diseaser ~spread by FLIEX Flies inhabit filth...carry the bace teria that starts infection. Kill flies. Use FLY-TOX. FLY-TOX also kills mosquitoes, roaches, bed bugs, fleas, etc. Guaranteed. FLY=-IO | DEVELOPED AT MELLON INSTITUTE OF INDUSTRIAL RESEARCH BY REX RESEARCH FELLOWSHIP And I could not possibly foresee that you | She had hovered on the brink of this chasm as if it fascinated her. “If I ever thought that you had ceased to care for me,” she had told | him, “I would throw myself down there.” ! She had swayed on the edge and pre- tended to have lost her balance, so that he was forced to take her in his arms and drag her away. Hold me," she whispered when they were out on the grass again. “Hold | me like that with your big, strong arms. I am afraid when you are not holding me.” (Continued in Tomorrow's Star.) . : Some families would rather have a five-foot shelf of preserves in the cellar than a five-foot shelf of books in the living room.—Albany Ne CHINESE TROOPERS HUNT AMERICAN MISSIONARIES Two Missing on Trip—Four Others Are Reported Safe at Chaoping. | | By the Associated Press. ) CANTON, China; Scptember 25.- Considerable anxiety was felt here to- day for the safety of Dr. and Mrs. J. M. Bailey, American missionaries. Th.y were traveling in Kwangsi Province from Wuchow to Kwellin and were in a_re- gion where an English missionary, Miss | Tobin, kidr ars- /. Dr. and Mrs. B: on- of the Southern L tion, which has its headquarters at Richmond, Va. Rev. Mr. C. J. Lowe and his wife and two children of the same mission, who were traveling the same route, were re- ported to be safe at Chaoping. The governor of Kwangsi sent troops to round-up the bandits, and promised to make every effort to rescue Miss Tobin. 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